"Cerion ricardi, new species

(Pl. 11, fig. 2)

Cerion ricardi Torre, ms. (in sched).

     Description. - Sell reaching 23 mm. (about 1 inch) in length, solid, axially sculptured and rimately perforate. Color a mottled, brownish-white. Whorls 9 to 10, slightly convex, the last 3 whorls nearly straight sided, the remaining earlier whorls forming a convex conic summit. Spire extended forming an angle of about 70°. Aperture subquadrate. Outer or palatal lip reflected, slightly thickened and recurved. Parietal lip consisting of a thin glaze and not built forward. Parietal tooth centered, low and short. Columellar tooth low and ex. tending back for nearly two whorls. Columella inclined somewhat to the left or nearly straight. Umbilicus rimately formed, small and shallow. Suture slightly indented. Scupture consisting of numerous, somewhat irregular, axial costae which number 31 to 38 on the body whorl. Nuclear whorls amber in color, first whorl smooth, second whorl very faintly costate.

     Types. - Holotype, Museo Poey no. 12669. Paratypes, Museum of Comparative Zoölogy no. 129421; 129402 and 188591, from Punta de Tarará, Habana Province, Cuba, Collected by Ricardo de la Torre, P. J. Bermúdez, C. G. Aguayo, W. J. Clench and I. P. Far­rante. This species is named for its discovere, Dr. Ricardo de la Torre, proffesor of Geology at the University of Havana.

     This species will shortly be extinct, if its distribution is limited entirely to Punta de Tarará. This area has become a rapidly grow­ing summer resort and building operations are destroying all the original plant cover. We visited this area in July 1949 and found but few live specimens on two small sand dunes. These dunes were then being cut away to fill in a small salt marsh area behind the beach ridge.

      Cerion ricardi is a member of the Cyclostomum complex and closely related to C. cyclostomum complex. It differs by being larger, having the aperture more quadrate than circular and with a less thickened parietal lip." (Clench & Aguayo, 1951:71)